"Project
Shipboard Hazard and Defense":(SHAD), was a program started
in the early 1960's,to learn the vulnerabilities of US warships,
during chemical or biological warfare attacks. Under "Project
SHAD" were 113 different "Operations" or tests. US
Naval crews and Marine personnel were sprayed with various biological
and chemical germ warfare agents, and simulants. Some ships, and
Marine personnel were sprayed from overflying aircraft, while other
tests on ships were being sprayed by aircraft carriers, which were
upwind. While some high ranking personnel may have had knowledge
of what was happening, most of the ships crews did not.

Project "SHAD"
was controlled by The US Army Deseret Test Center, later to be known
as Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah. For over 35 years, The Department
of Defense said, "there was NO Project "SHAD".

Today the
DoD admits that it tested the deadly nerve agent Sarin, known as
VX, or biological toxins on American Servicemen, but said the information
was "classified".

Lately the
Dod agreed to declassify all of the 113 "Operations" and
inform the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)of the findings. Presently
12 of the 113 have been declassified, although the information being
released is very limited.

The Department
of Defense is not releasing ALL the information needed by the veteran,
which would allow him to apply for treatment in a VA facility and
to file a claim for service connected disability compensation.

Only about
600 veterans of the estimated tens of thousands of those exposed
to warfare agents have been notified they could be suffering from
related dangerous health effects, according to VA and Pentagon officials.

A study by
the US Department of Veterans Affairs completed in September of
2001, but never released to the public or the affected veterans,
suggests the Veterans, who participated in "Project SHAD",may
be at increased risk for cerebrovascular diseases and respiratory
diseases. That they are three (3) times more likely to die of resiratory
and vascular brain diseases than the general population.

Steve Robinson,
executive director of the National Gulf War Resources Center, said:
"These veterans could be dying at a rate three times greater
than the general population from diseases that could be related
to their military service."

"We
have a moral responsibility to set the record straight and that
seems to be a problem for both the leaders in the Department of
Defense, and the entrenched bureaucrats of the Department of Veterans
Affairs."

Senator Bill
Nelson(D)of Florida,a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee
and Rep. Mike Thompson,(D) of California plan to introduce legislation
in their respective chambers, urging the Pentagon to reveal more
information about the tests, known as "Project SHAD".
Eleven other members of Congress have signed the request from Thompson.
They have attached a provision on to Senate bill, S-2514, known
as The National Defense Authorization Act, to fund the declassification
of Project SHAD. The president has vowed to veto the bill. The tests
involved substances that the military believed at the time to be
harmless. But evidence now
shows that some could be harmful.

The Secretary
of veterans affairs, Anthony Principi, urged Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfield to declassify more of the tests "as quickly as possible."

Anyone that
believes they were part of the SHAD tests, should Contact: